From hammond321@yahoo.com Wed Aug 29 14:45:07 2012
Subject:Re: Lex Vent Nord E3 comparison
Thanks for the nice comparison and review! Sounds like the Lex could be a good alternative for someone not wanting to spend the extra bucks on a Vent.
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From: rb4u1
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 2:31 PM
Subject: [CWSG] Lex Vent Nord E3 comparison
Here are my observations of a Strymon Lex &a Neo Vent connected to a Nord E3 thru a QSC K10 in Mono. 8/29/12
I play. In a Blues/Vintage Rock band and don't consider myself a serious B3 player. I enjoy the music of both Jimmy Smith & Jon Lord.
I have owned a Dynacord, a Rotosphere, and a Voce Spin and several Nord Electros.
The Vent has a better layout with knobs recessed to minimize damage. The switches on the older vent are superior to the older Lex that I received second hand.
Apparently, the Newer Lex has improved switches.
The Vent has been updated to stereo in & out.
Mine is mono in & Stereo out as is the Lex that I have.
The Nord has mono or stereo out to help reproduce Lealie
Effect animation. Strymon rcommends using a specific output for Mono although I preferred the opposite output.
I tried using a dummy plug in the opposite output & did not discern a difference.
Power supplies on both the Lex & Vent are external.
The one I received with my older vent is very long.
The one with the Lex is more than adequate.
The Nord power cord is great. Just keep a spare.
In the following categories I preferred the Vent over the Lex:
Drive- the Vent is darker or lower & smoother. The Lex
Is focused a little higher and gets fizzy quickly. The knob for this was useful from 7 o'clock to 9 o'clock. Beyond that it became too much for my taste. This is one area where I like the Nord effect the Overdrive is darker & smoother until about 2 3/4 on the knob, between 10 & 11 o'clock then it too becomes a little too artificial especially after it reaches 12 o'clock.
The vent & lex both had a Distance Knob for setting the microphone placement.
Both units were superior to the Nord and were able to achieve a variety of settings easily.
Both units had a Horn Balance or Horn Level which was useful but nominal settings were pretty effective. This didn't require much tweaking, although the Lex seemed to benefit a little by turning counter clockwise or darker.
Rotor speed was adjustable on both units. I preferred the Vent in this because to access the Lower Rotor on the Lex you had to access it thru secondary settings which I didn't care for.
The Vent had acceleration as a dedicated knob.
The Lex had acceleration as a secondary setting.
The Vent has Stop settings available on a desperate foot switch.
The Lex achieved this by maintaining pressure on the slow/fast switch.
I preferred the separate switch on the external Vent foot switch which is an added cost and requires additional connection and setup.
The Lex has some nice secondary features. I read a review where it was suggested these should have been silkscreened on the pedal. I agree.
Overall I didn't care for the method to use the secondary settings although this might be easier to manage with Strymon's newer switches or their favorite setting pedal.
Overall the Vent is clearly the better solution. My only issue with the Vent is the Input level can become overloaded at the Nord's hotter output settings which cause a bit of honkiness if pushed a little bit. The Vent does have a light to indicate when the signal is being overdriven. This is possibly a form of digital clipping and
for me is the only drawback of the unit.
The animation of both units is superior to the Nord effect which seems to lack depth compared to these two units.
I would think the Lex would be a huge improvement to anyone wanting to hold onto an older keyboard like an E2 or possibly an Xk-3.
I bought the Lex for convienence but may go back to the Vent. Both are very nice and provide more realism than the rest of the simulators.
RB4U1
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